Lyon blasts Dockers defenders

Fremantle coach Ross Lyon has put his defenders on notice in the wake of last week's loss to Adelaide, labelling some of their efforts as "soft" and in need of vast improvement ahead of Saturday's clash with Richmond at Subiaco Oval.

Lyon singled out Paul Duffield, Lee Spurr, Michael Johnson and Zac Dawson for criticism, saying it was unacceptable for the Crows to generate 15 scoring shots from 18 inside 50-metre entries in the opening half of the 28-point loss.

The return of premier defender Luke McPharlin from suspension will help address some of those issues, but Lyon said it was up to the rest of the defensive unit to pull their own weight.

"It would be a sad state of affairs if we were using excuses and [trying] to be a one-man team," Lyon said.

"I don't subscribe to that theory. We're trying to move away from that. There's not too many great teams or clubs built around one person, I know that.

"It's a battle all over the ground. But this particular instance, you could drill it down to our back six.

"They're really good people. They didn't intentionally go out not to defend well for us in a critical game.

"But they got away from some basics and some principles of competing and body work.

"I just saw some soft defensive aerials contests."

Along with McPharlin, Fremantle has been bolstered by the return of star midfielder Nat Fyfe from an ankle injury, while Richmond recalled forward Brett O'Hanlon for injured defender Reece Conca (foot).

The fixture will see Dockers skipper Matthew Pavlich equal former West Coast great Glen Jakovich's 276-match record for the most AFL appearances by a Western Australia-based player.

Pavlich booted six goals opposed to Alex Rance when Fremantle soared to an upset 12-point victory over Richmond at the MCG in round 11.

But Tigers midfielder Shaun Grigg backed Rance to make amends on Saturday.

"Rancey's a competitive beast and he'll look forward to the challenge," Grigg said in an interview on Perth radio.

Fremantle (11-8) sits just adrift of eighth spot on percentage and remains a good chance to snare a finals berth.

But the equation is far more cut-throat for the Tigers (9-10), who need to win their remaining three matches and rely on a host of other results to fall their way in order to sneak into the top eight.